


Sway

by TheShortestManOnEarth



Series: Jam Bud Week 2020 [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Jam Bud Week 2020, Mostly Fluff, References to Bismuth Casual, References to Kevin Party, Some angst, dance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23273242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShortestManOnEarth/pseuds/TheShortestManOnEarth
Summary: Steven and Connie have been dancing together throughout their relationship. As they grow up, they begin realize that dancing is fine alone, but it's better together."Dance" Prompt for Jam Buds Week 2020.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran & Steven Universe, Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Series: Jam Bud Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673545
Comments: 6
Kudos: 55
Collections: Steven Universe Completed Recommended Reads





	Sway

**Author's Note:**

> Hey All,
> 
> This came out a bit more serious than intended, so I apologize if it feels less fluffy than expected. I do plan to try to make the other prompts for Jam Bud Week 2020 more fluffy, but since angst flows out more pores I'm not sure how that'll go. 
> 
> I am taking a brief break from "Someday" to work on the Jam Buds prompts and another series of shorts I have planned for SU over the next couple days. As mentioned in my A/N for "Someday" I am also going to be alternating between working on my She-Ra fic and SU stuff, so I appreciate the patience. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this. It's not my best work, but it felt like a nice reprieve from the last couple of episodes. 
> 
> Credit Note: The song lyrics in italics are from the song "Sway" by The Kooks. 
> 
> Enjoy!

There was a time when Connie could have said she didn’t know how to dance. Or more accurately, that she thought she was doing it all wrong. Everything in Connie’s life had been structured into a clear cut of right and wrong. Her academic focus, especially when it came to math, always had a calculated answer. For a time, that was comfortable, safe, and above all, familiar. 

Her parents were loving, but they never danced in front of her and as far as she knew they never went out to go dancing either. She only had some odd videos she’d seen online and the occasional glimpse of a TV show school dance to reference for knowing how to dance. The lack of reference served to add anxiety to any attempts she might have made to try dancing. She was scared. Then she had her first school dance. Everyone stared. She shrunk back against the wall, trapped like an animal against caged bars. Doomed to be a wallflower wilting from a lack of the rhythm of the breeze. 

The soft low purr of the waves of the beach soothed the backdrop as a hand came into her peripheral vision. “No one’s looking now.” 

_Say whatever you have to say, I’ll stand by you._

Connie’s mind stalled, fear setting in as she replied shyly, “Um, you are.” Steven paused, taking her response in stride. He didn’t run away. The curly haired boy simply rolled, tumbling a little over the sand as it blended together, as one, softening the grains below to a smooth flow. 

“Oh, right,” He said, pulling out his phone and tapping a few times to pull up what she presumed was a song. “What I meant to say is…” His hand stretched out to her, the other covering his eyes. “Come dance with me.” 

As she took his hand, she noticed he was still watching her. He wasn’t staring intensely, nor did he appear to be judging, but smiling as if he never truly intended to look away. Something in the way his eyes flickered in the light of the evening drew her closer. She moved to the beat of the song, her toes delighting in the feel of the sand below. She’d never understood how Steven could always walk around in sandals. Now as the sand moved across her freed feet, it was like the calloused walls keeping her from twisting, turning, and jumping came down. 

Two kids diving and laughing as they passed each other in open expression of a long-lost sense of rhythm or time. Neither cared if they didn’t sync up with the commanded instructions of the song. Connie smiled and then her eyes came up as Steven tripped. Her arms stretched out and grabbed him. Their foreheads then pressed together; a mutual smile soon became one. 

Dancing with him became a regular occurrence. After a while she didn’t even have to think about it before their bodies found each other, twirling, swinging, and only a few times did Connie worry about others seeing them moving. 

_Do whatever you have to do, to get it out and not become a reactionary to hurt the ones you love. I know you never meant to, but you do. Oh yeah, you do._

\--------------------------------------------------------- 

Steven left. In the night after he’d come back from Homeworld, she had walked away from him. Not feeling the same flow, the same closeness, he’d tried to push that honesty back into the ocean where he’d left her screaming his name. She’d spent nearly three weeks wondering how her skin felt colder, her body stiff and achy, and her mind in turmoil. Any song she put on was a grating, scratchy dissonance. She’d thrown her headphones across the room after failing to find a way to move on her own. 

At the end of three weeks she saw him. Dancing with Kevin. Her mind filled with a million words she wanted to throw at him. Some of them made it out. He’d left her. Until she spent days waiting for news from him in space, thinking he wasn’t coming back, she never thought she’d miss his gentle touches, the hugs, and the harmony as they moved together. 

Three weeks had detuned her. She was sure her movements would be squeaky and unpleasant. She couldn’t remember what it felt like to have Steven’s arms around her. It took a while after he came back before he offered her his hand again. The soft fingers felt rougher, calloused from surviving so long on Homeworld and fighting for his life. She didn’t know when she’d pulled closer, but when she met his eyes, a pair of dark brown seas of tears stared back. Words couldn’t do the same thing dancing could. As she slipped her arms around his neck, letting him rest his head on her shoulder, she found herself lightly moving to the beat of his breaths. 

As his breathing slowed to a relaxed pace, he lifted his head and pressed their foreheads together. His hand dropped to his pocket and a quiet tune filled the air. “Smooth.” She said with a wry grin. Each breath from their mouths misted together. It was nice to see it, feel it, know that it was tangible again. He smiled. 

“I missed this.” He voiced, though his words held some uncertainty. Their relationship had been a mess of his own making. Time was chasing the two kids into the throes of their teenage years like an energetic puppy nipping and barking at the bumper of a car. They were constantly stopping and going. He dropped his hands to his sides, and he clicked off the music. Steven was exceptionally good at dumping guilt on himself. 

“Hey,” She cupped one of his cheeks. “Don’t do that to yourself. We talked about this.” She took his hand in hers. “Just…” She pulled her phone out and started a new song. “Dance with me.” 

Steven was shaky at first, the way she’d been feeling for weeks. He slowly moved his arms to hold Connie close. She leaned into the touch. One they hadn’t even realized they’d needed but was more than enough to ground them in between gentle twirls apart. They were never too far, never pulling too many feet away before they came back, hugging, listening for heartbeats. 

_Be whoever you have to be. I won’t judge you. Sing whatever you have to sing to get it out and not become a recluse about your house. Come out. I know you never meant to, but you do._

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Connie had felt the searing anxiety acutely through Stevonnie as if it were her own at the roller rink. It wasn’t until they’d unfused that she realized just how many self-deprecating thoughts were firing through his head at one time. Hundreds flooded his consciousness. Blame for all the things his mother had done, hurt over the fact that he didn’t have a purpose now that the war was over, and failing Little Homeschool. He hadn’t told her about that. What else was he trying to hide? 

She’d mulled it over in the days following their outing. When she couldn’t sit with it any longer, she called him over to their spot again. The Beach had always been a place they could be themselves. It didn’t feel connected to anything in particular, just a bridge into the Ocean and a world beyond the waves. 

Steven arrived on Lion. His body seemed heavier, despite how gaunt and thinned out he appeared. She crossed the sand, meeting him halfway. They embraced and she only stepped back slightly. 

“What’re we doing out here?” He asked. She took his hands. 

“Steven, I know you’re not just worried about roller skating,” She said. 

His eyes didn’t even widen at the words. They couldn’t hide from each other as Stevonnie. “Oh,” the barely audible word tumbled out of his mouth and sat between them for a minute. 

_Still I need your sway, because you always pay for it. And I, and I need your soul because you’re always soulful._

Connie gave a light tug on his hands. His weary expression twitched up into a half smile as he took her lead and stepped closer. They found their usual rhythm, though it was slower, and he constantly found himself tripping, almost apologize and finding that Connie would just keep them moving. She held his gaze and never once made him feel like she cared about his slipups. A light tilt had him staring up into her eyes and she twirled him out effortlessly as though she’d known how to do it her whole life. When had that happened? 

“Where’d you learn to do that?” He asked. She grinned. 

“Here and there,” She answered and moved her arms around his shoulders. They’d always been affectionate with each other, but this felt different. “You’re the one who helped me learn the first time.” 

Steven laughed hollowly, “I don’t know, you seem like you can do just fine on your own.” Connie sighed. He wasn’t making this easy. Then again, nothing about him was ever simple. He inherited an intergalactic conflict and was part of an ancient alien rock dynasty. 

“Maybe I found my own way,” She affirmed, “But I still like it better when we’re together.” Steven laughed. 

“You don’t have to say that just to make me feel better, Connie,” He said, averting his eyes. She wasn’t letting him. Her hands brought his face back to level with her as she squished his cheeks the way she had many times before. 

“I didn’t,” She stated firmly, but still with a gentle caress of his cheek that caused his face to flush, “And will _never_ tell you something I don't mean. You know I don’t mince words, Steven.” It was the truth. Connie never wasted words. She was eternally methodically careful about how she phrased things. 

“Can I…” He started and swallowed his words. Connie smiled to herself. After so many years of following his impulsive and free-falling lead, his nervous blushing face was a surprise. Never one to be shy with his physical affection, Steven felt the strangeness of the situation as Connie’s hands lightly moved his arms back to fall across her back. His eyes flickered with memories of falling on the floor at the rink. But Connie’s voice brought him back to center. To the warmth in her eyes as she looked at him. 

“It’s okay, Steven,” Connie said, “It’s me.” She wrapped her arms behind his neck, her fingers tangling in his curls. His body relaxed into hers as they began to sway back and forth together. “No one else is watching.” 

“You are,” He said with a genuine smile this time. She smiled at his cheeky throwback to their first dance. 

“Am I?” She teased. With a slight pause she listened to his breathing as it matched hers. “Do you know why I thought it was scary, having everyone watch me?” Steven shook his head. “I thought everyone would know I didn’t know what I was doing. That I was clumsy or stupid. 

“You felt the same way at the rink. But that’s not what I saw. It’s not what I see now.” Connie said. She put a hand on his chest. “You’ve got such a big dopey heart, Steven. But there’s not enough room in there for yourself.” 

They stopped swaying for a moment. He didn’t know what to do or say. Everything was so unstable, constantly changing, shifting, and he couldn’t find where to plant his feet. “You helped me to just let go. To just move and feel things out. It’s the best thing anyone has ever done for me.” She clicked on another song. 

“I’ve been watching you,” She said. “And every day I get to see the brave, big hearted boy I met on the Beach,” Steven’s eyes started to tear up and Connie reached over to wipe them away. “Grow into the amazing man I know he’ll be someday.” They hugged close and with a sniff, Steven pulled back. 

“Can we keep dancing?” He asked. Connie smiled and dipped her best friend as he let out a giggle of surprise. They held each other close until the sun went down, their bodies swayed and clung to a sense of peace until the song ended. Two silhouettes washing over each other in soft waves until they became one. 

_And I need your heart, because it’s always in the right places._


End file.
